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New York Giants pull off a miracle in Daniel Jones’ debut

By Charles Vitolo

TAMPA, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 22: Daniel Jones #8 of the New York Giants scores a 4th quarter touchdown during a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on September 22, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 22: Daniel Jones #8 of the New York Giants scores a 4th quarter touchdown during a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on September 22, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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The New York football Giants pulled off a stunning, come from behind win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Where do I start? How about by taking a few deep breaths, because my blood pressure is still through the roof. In the words of the immortal Jack Buck, ‘I don’t believe what I just saw’.

What we saw is the start of a new era of Giants football, one that we all have been craving for quite some time now. This has nothing to do with the demise of Eli Manning, and everything to do with the overall well-being of the franchise – as I’ve said all along. Daniel Jones can play himself some football, to say the least.

If you want a good laugh, head over to our Facebook page to see the difference between a broken man, and one full of prosperity – that would be me on our Facebook live posts. I woke up this morning excited, but still very much unsure of the future of Big Blue football — I now couldn’t be more thrilled.

Danny Dimes (or Danny Scoots as I was calling him….someone please come up with something better), did all he could and then some to deliver us the best debut in the history of New York sports. He survived 20 quarterback pressures, five sacks, an all-time level bad defense, and numerous head-scratching referee calls to give us the win we so badly desired.

Jones wrapped up play with 336 passing yards, two touchdowns and zero picks (he did fumble twice, as I warned you all to watch for). He was also (somehow) the team’s leading rusher with 28 yards on the ground, and another two rushing touchdowns – including the game-winning scamper on fourth and the game.

I will forgive every Dave Gettleman transgression (of which there are many) if this kid looks half as good as he did today for the rest of his career. I said all along that I thought they reached, but truth be told, you can never reach on a quarterback if he is as good as this kid appears he can be. Jones added a new element to this offense and evaded pressure with ease. He truly is ‘Eli Jr.’, as the moment never got too big and he dusted himself off after every hit like nothing even happened.

There were surely other positives, too. That ‘all-time bad’ defense racked up four sacks, and a ton of pressure. We saw the first career sack from Dexter Lawrence, and the ‘X-man’ (O’shane Ximines’ tallied one as well. Markus Golden continued to prove he has a lot left in the tank, chipping in the other two sacks. If this defense can continue to get pressure like they did today (something I also thought would happen after a better outing last week), it will hide a lot of the deficiencies that this unit so-clearly has.

I don’t like tooting my own horn too much (that’s a lie), but I will let you know that I predicted that Ryan Connelly would be the ‘X-factor’ of the game, while also being in the middle of that ever-elusive first turnover – I just didn’t know it would come at such a huge time, or that I would feel so hopeful for the future ( and quite possibly the season) after it.

Evan Engram completely turned the game around with his dazzling 75-yard touchdown reception to open up the second half, clearly reinvigorating his demoralized teammates. Sterling Shepard came off of a concussion in week one to make the biggest catch of the game, while also hitting the 100 yard mark (he was right at 100, Engram had 113). Darius Slayton also had a meaningful debut, hauling in three balls for 82 yards.

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I predicted the score would be 31-28, Giants – it was 32-31, sorry (there I go tooting that horn again). How nice was it to see a kicker miss a big-time field goal against us for once? I know about wide-right, but I wasn’t born yet.

I’m going to try my hardest to not utter any negative words about the team this week, we all should just sit back and enjoy this one for a while – we deserve it. It’s been a rough couple weeks (that felt like years, to be honest) around here.

There a new sheriff in town, and his name is Danny Dimes.

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